Steve Biko was born in King Williams Town, in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. He was a student at the University of Natal Medical School. He was initially involved with the multiracial National Union of South African Students, but after he became convinced that black, Indian and Colored students needed an organization of their own, he helped found the South African Students' Organization (SASO) in 1968 and was elected its first president. The SASO evolved into the influential Black Consciousness Movement (BCM). In 1972 Biko became honorary president of the Black People's Convention. He was banned during the height of apartheid in March 1973, meaning that he was not allowed to speak to more than one person at a time, was restricted to certain areas, and could not make speeches in public. It was also forbidden to quote anything he said, including speeches or simple conversations. In spite of the repression of the apartheid government, Biko and the BCM played a large role in organizing the protests which led to the Soweto riots on 16 June 1976.
Like Frantz Fanon, Biko originally studied medicine, and also like Fanon, Biko developed an intense concern for the development of black consciousness as a solution to the existential struggles which shape existence, both as a human and as an African (see Négritude). Biko can thus be seen as a follower of Fanon and Aimé Césaire, in contrast to more pacifist ANC leaders such as Nelson Mandela and Albert Lutuli who were first disciples of Gandhi.
Biko saw the struggle to restore African consciousness as having two stages, "Psychological liberation" and "Physical liberation". The non-violent influence of Gandhi, and Martin Luther King upon Biko is then suspect, as Biko knew that for his struggle to give rise to physical liberation, it was necessary that it exist within the political realities of the apartheid regime, and Biko's non-violence may be seen more as a tactic than a personal conviction.Thus Biko's BCM had much in common with other left-wing African nationalist movements of the time, such as Amilcar Cabral's PAIGC and Huey Newton's Black Panther Party.
In the aftermath of the Soweto riots, police began to target Biko further. On 18 August 1977, he was arrested at a police roadblock under the Terrorism Act No 83 of 1967. He suffered a major head injury while in police custody and was chained to a window grille for a full day. On 11 September 1977 police loaded him into the back of a car and began the 740-mile drive to Pretoria. He died shortly after the arrival in the Pretoria prison. Police claimed his death was the result of an extended hunger strike. He was found to have massive injuries to the head which many saw as strong evidence that he had been heavily and brutally clubbed.
Due to his fame, news of his death quickly spread across the world, and it provided a great wake-up call internationally to the extent of the brutality of the apartheid regime. His funeral was attended by many thousands of people, including numerous ambassadors and other diplomats from the United States and Western Europe. Journalist Donald Woods, a personal friend of Biko, photographed his injuries in the morgue and was later forced to flee South Africa for England, where he campaigned against apartheid and further publicized Biko's life and death.
The following year on the 2 February 1978, the Attorney-General of the Eastern Cape stated that he would not prosecute any police involved in the arrest and detention of Biko and on 7 October 2003, the South African Justice Ministry officials announced that the five policemen who were accused of killing Biko would not be prosecuted because of insufficient evidence. During the trial it was claimed that Biko's head injuries were a self-inflicted suicide attempt, and not the result of any beatings. The judge ultimately ruled that a murder charge could not be supported partly because there were no witnesses to the killing. Charges of culpable homicide and assault were also considered, but because the killing occurred in 1977, the time frame for prosecution had expired.
